The Scripture passages are identified with bold upright font and the author’s notes are identified with italic regular font.

Note – All words or phrases found in quotation marks are actual parts of the Hebrew definition(s).

32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. 33 A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

Man of Shame

It seems this adultery theme is staying with us. It has been covered in many ways in our review and examination of this chapter of Proverbs. God has it covered so much because it is such a destructive force in a marriage, but to be honest I would really like to be done with the topic.

Okay, just when I make my last statement things get interesting. Verse thirty-two states that a man who commits adultery “lacketh understanding” and that by doing so, committing adulty, he “destroyeth his own soul.” When I examined this “understanding” that the man lacks I find something incredible but so powerfully true.

In the Hebrew language this means that the man lacks, “a heart and feelings” the man lacks according to the Hebrew language both proper “will and even intellect” he lacks a proper center to his life, Christ. What is in quotation marks here is right out of the Hebrew language, who would have known that lacking understanding actually encompassed so much.

The soul is where the mind, will, and emotions reside and verse thirty-two say that as a man partakes in any form of adultery, he destroys his own soul. It is something he does to himself. Wow see the connections between the lack of understand and the destruction of the soul; soul equals the mind (the lack of intellect), the will (the lack of willpower), and emotions (the lack of heart and feelings), the connection is incredible.

Let us look closely in the Hebrew language at what this destruction of the soul actually entails.

I have known men who got caught up with women who were not their wives, I have seen what it did to them, their marriages, and their wives; needless to say the destruction done to the marriages and the damage done to the wives is heartbreaking but in some ways it is equally sad when you see it take a man who was once decent at heart and turns him into something barely worth giving a second glance, he becomes so utterly rotten and diminished as a man. I guess what I am describing that I see in this type of man is what is talked about in verse thirty-three.

He becomes a man of no honour any longer. The verse says that he has a wound, which in the Hebrew means he is scared, he has a “figurative infliction” notice it is “infliction” not affliction, infliction means he will suffer due to what he has done. The Hebrew say he becomes “a leprous person” someone treated like they have the “plague” and I am sure there are many wounded wives who can attest to that truth, they did not want the adulterous man touching them for some period of time, if not permanently. Those women who did allow it are incredibly strong women, rare women, though should the man continue or repeat his adultery even very strong women may begin to find it almost impossible to be touched by such a man.

This “reproach” that the man suffers due to his own actions is something verse thirty-three states never goes away. I think many men and women who have gone through this horrible blow to marriage would both agree that even in cases where the marriage survived, which is rarer than one might think, and God brought proper healing to the marriage, the marriage is never quite the same; the man is never view without the stain nor with the honor he was once viewed.

In the Hebrew language this “reproach” is describes as “contumely, disgrace, +the pudenda:— rebuke, reproach (-fully), shame.” “Contumely” being “harsh language or treatment arising from haughtiness and contempt” – the contempt felt for a man who would do such is great on his wife’s part, his children’s part and in many cases even his friends or co-workers. I almost hate to go here but the Hebrew refers to the disgrace, shame, and contempt that is felt both toward the man and his “pudenda” which is his sexual organ. For a wounded wife the idea of having his sexual organ touch her sexual organ must be a painful concept; something once beautiful is now marred with ugliness.

Oh men, I urge you it is far easier to avoid this trap and save your dignity than it is repair your dignity and recover the look of love and sparkle in your wife’s eyes.

Throughout this study if you need the wisdom of God on a matter, and you wish to receive the counsel of another Believer in Christ, please use the “comments” link to send your question to me.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers, and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

The Scripture passages are identified with bold upright font and the author’s notes are identified with italic regular font.

Note – All words or phrases found in quotation marks are actual parts of the Hebrew definition(s).

21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. 22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. 23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

God Sees

God sees it all my friends. God understandings it all. God cares about it all. There is nothing about us, in our lives, or that touches our lives that God does not know about in advanced and has thoroughly considered. The path of our life has been thoroughly dredged by God. V.21

This in no way means that God has fated our entire life or that all that happens to us is our destiny or even God’s Will, for neither possibility is supported by the whole of Scripture. There are things that are our destiny, fated by God to happen in our life, then there are things that happen that God had no part of or who does not even want to have take place.

Have you ever heard it said, ‘People get caught in their own trap.’? Well, verse twenty-two is where that comes from.

Most of the problems caused in our life derive from our own wrongdoing or from the wrongdoing of someone very close to us (v.22). Think over the last six major problems you had in your life? What actually caused the problems? Was the damage done due to your own sin or the way someone close to you had sinned? And what about when sin begets sin…someone does to you, you do to them, it spreads to yet another person who is affected, so on and so forth. Our sins are like a giant mushroom gas that spreads out far and wide and poisons all of those people close to us if we are not careful.

That sin can come in all types of forms. In verse twenty-two the word used for “iniquities” in the Hebrew is inclusive of the following: “perversity, in example moral evil:— fault, iniquity, mischief, punishment (of iniquity), sin.” There are many people who do not see their “faults” as sin, it is to them just their faults. However, ask those affected by their “faults” and you might find them well able to describe the person’s sin. You show me hurt between two people, and I will show you sin somewhere in the mix. v.22

Giving oneself to sin is extremely dangerous because ultimately it leads to us being bound by our own sin, which is what it means to be “holden with the cords of his sin.” v.22 Our sin begins to take control of us instead of us controlling sin. Anyone caught in a sin they are struggling to stop will attest to that truth.

Have you ever known a person who was just silly far too often? Now reflect on that person’s life and character. I can almost assure you in nearly each case that person was a person of little or no true substance in life. They lacked anything that truly mattered to them or for which they had deep passion. Part of the definition for the word “folly” found in verse twenty-three means “silliness” – silliness and folly are companions. v.23

Because people refuse to be mindful of God’s godly wisdom they will die in their folly and sin. Folly leads to going astray and going astray leads to death. Going “astray in the Hebrew language means “to stray, usually figuratively to mistake, especially morally to transgress; by extension (through the idea of intoxication) to reel, figuratively be enraptured:— cause to go astray, deceive, err, be ravished, sin through ignorance, let or make to wander.” v.23

That path of life that I wrote of a few paragraphs back, the path that God’s dredges before us, the path to our “true life” is not a path that is meant to be filled with sorrow caused by sin and folly, your own or the sin and folly of those closes to you, it is the path of godly wisdom instead that He desires for each of us. This is why He has placed His instructions in His Word, not to restrict us but instead to protect our life from harm. Instructions such as love each other, husbands and wives be kind to one another esteeming the other greater, do not lie, do not steal, do not misuse your body, do no get drunk, do not commit adultery, rejoice with our brethren when they rejoice, help carry their sorrows when they hurt, husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church, wives respect your husbands, etc. all meant to protect us.

Throughout this study if you need the wisdom of God on a matter, and you wish to receive the counsel of another Believer in Christ, please use the “comments” link to send your question to me.

Please keep me in your prayers and know that if God should speak anything into your heart as you pray for me regarding my life please feel free to share that with me. God speaks through His people.

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Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers, and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

The Scripture passages are identified with bold upright font and the author’s notes are identified with italic regular font.

Note – All words or phrases found in quotation marks are actual parts of the Hebrew definition(s).

15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. 16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. 17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. 18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. 19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. 20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

Infidelity – A Love Killer

Infidelity of any kind, in any form, is the worst thing you can possibly do to a marriage. It is the betrayal of the love you share with your spouse. Infidelity tears at the covenant between a man and woman, a husband and wife.

Hence the reason God makes it plain to find our pleasures in all forms in our spouse. When we find our pleasure in the company of a member of the opposite sex, who is not our spouse, we are being unfaithful to our marriage covenant, whether that pleasure be sexual, spiritual, emotional, mental, intellectual, etc.

We are designed for deep intimacy with one person of the opposite sex, our spouse. It is in them we are to find our satisfaction on any level relationally with the opposite sex. “Fountains” in the Hebrew language means, “figuratively a source of satisfaction.”

A man is meant to continue with the wife to whom he marries in his youth (v.18), divorce is not God’s design though He does make provisions for allowing it to happen. Adultery does such severe damage to the marriage covenant that it is one of only two reasons God allows divorce. (One may divorce in the case of adultery, Matthew 5:27-32, or in the case of an unbelieving spouse who desires to divorce a Believer, 1 Corinthians 7:10-16. – However, as a Believer we are not enter into a relationship with an unbeliever in the first place, 2 Corinthians 6:11-18.)

Not only is a man to remain with the wife of his youth, she is the only woman he is to receive any sexual excitement or satisfaction from all the days of his life (v.19). Yes men, books, movies, computer images, thoughts of another woman, are sin, your thoughts are only to be for your wife. You are to keep your desires focused, and for that matter alive, for your wife. v.19 Note here that God addresses the man with the responsibility for keeping his interest in his wife alive.

Verse twenty asked the question, ‘Why would you want anyone else but your wife?’ That is a question for the ages. How many men thought they wanted something else other than the wife of their youth only to find once they had the woman they so thought they desired, and the bloom was off of the rose, they were longing to have the wife of their youth back, the woman who had loved them so, yet, in many cases it was too late or in the cases where they were able to have the wife of their youth back they had damaged the once precious love that woman had for them.

Adultery kills love, think twice before partaking in it on any level!

Throughout this study if you need the wisdom of God on a matter, and you wish to receive the counsel of another Believer in Christ, please use the “comments” link to send your question to me.

Also, please keep me in your prayers and know that if God should speak anything into your heart as you pray for me regarding my life please feel free to share that with me. God speaks through His people.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers, and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

In this piece we will explore one last point from chapter eightof David Kupelian’s book, How Evil Works. Please find a link below where you can purchase the book from Amazon, should you desire to do so. The final point made in this chapter is in regard to marriage, divorce, and the affect of both on America.

Marriage is, among other things, the representation of God’s union with Israel (Isaiah 54:5) and Jesus’ union with The Church, The Body of Christ (Ephesians 5:23-32). The hindrance of marriage is a part of the Great Apostasy (1 Timothy 4:1-5), which is to come on the earth. Marriage is meant to bring happiness to mankind (Genesis 2:18), be a means by which our races are continued (Genesis 1:27-28), and be a pathway for bringing children into the world to become godly men and women (Malachi 2:14-15). Marriage is a state of being that was, and is, instituted by God (Genesis 18-24), as a union between a man and woman (Genesis 2:22-24). It is meant to be a permanent bond (Matthew 19:6) between a man and woman that only ends or is broken by the death (Romans 7:2-3) of one or both persons. Divorce is only allowed based on biblical standards in the case of adultery (Matthew 19:9) or desertion (1 Corinthians 7:10-17). Yet divorce, and divorce for convenience sake, is common place in America’s society today.

Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce:

Matthew 19:1–9 (NKJV)

Instruction About Divorce

Mark 10:1–16; Luke 18:15–17

19 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.

3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, andthe two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

As the author points out divorce is taking its toll on society and to a large degree destroying the very fabric of American society and the American home. The author, a man, seems primarily to put the responsibility on men when it comes to divorce. He states that a man should not blame a woman for giving up on him and divorcing him because “Your intense need for their emotional and sexual support, your selfishness, and impatience, your immaturity – all this and much more literally creates and feeds the resentment within your beloved.” He then points out that women are more vulnerable than men and that men must be strong for their wives inspiring their wives to be strong. The author also states that men should give up their “hurt feeling” that are often really anger toward the wife for being emotional and perhaps unreasonable because the man is actually the one who has created the frustration in large part in his wife, through the attitudes mentioned earlier.

Kupelian believes that “America needs to get a handle on its divorce epidemic.” It is producing and resulting in what he describes as “national suicide” one family at a time. The conflicts and pain builds up over the course of time and people reach a point where one or either both believes they cannot endure the painful presence of the other any longer. The author makes a profound statement however on this sad commentary, “How many marriages could be saved if the spouse intent on divorce were just to learn to give up all that anger toward the other?”

The continual and total release of anger, coupled with forgiveness can keep a marriage together throughout the course of a lifetime.

Ephesians 4:26 (NKJV)

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,

Ephesians 4:31 (NKJV)

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

Ephesians 4:32 (NKJV)

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Matthew 6:12 (NKJV) Jesus speaking

And forgive us our debts, (trespasses)

As we forgive our debtors. (trespassers)

The author closes the chapter with three suggestions that would keep people from divorce. He offers simple suggestions but the suggestions are not simple things to do in a world where “me” is top priority in life.

1. Men need to stop viewing women as though they were created to serve their ego because women were not created for that purpose. Men should instead care for them simple to care about them, for who they are, not because of what you are getting from the relationship.

2. Women give up your anger toward your man. Realize their failure to find real, selfless love for you is a serious flaw they have, very serious. However, your resentment toward them because of this flaw is your serious flaw.

3. “Reject divorce as an option.”

In the next posting we will begin to review chapter nine of David Kupelian’s book, How Evil Works. That chapter deals with the evil power of hate.

Evil can be understood and overcome before it transforms our country entirely. Evil can be understood and overcome before it transforms someone you know or even you. Knowledge is power and without it we will perish. We need to be extremely knowledgeable when it comes to evil.

Evil is sold in our society just as anything else might be sold, through marketing. Satan has marketed his product through those willing and those ignorant to his schemes. Through his craftiness he has turned the minds of even Believers to think that tolerance of his evil is some form of love. In so doing he has transformed to a large degree the once Devout Church and transformed our society to an enormous degree. He has not accomplished this without his workers however, the willing, the sold out for their own gain, and the ignorant masses following blindly behind the majority.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers, and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

11And He Himself gave some tobe apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.